Jest vs. Lest

(archaic) An act performed for amusement; a joke.

(archaic) Someone or something that is ridiculed; the target of a joke.

Example: ‘Your majesty, stop him before he makes you the jest of the court.’;

(obsolete) A deed; an action; a gest.

(obsolete) A mask; a pageant; an interlude.

To tell a joke; to talk in a playful manner; to make fun of something or someone.

Example: ‘Surely you jest!’;

alternative spelling of just

A deed; an action; a gest.

Example: ‘The jests or actions of princes.’;

A mask; a pageant; an interlude.

Example: ‘He promised us, in honor of our guest,To grace our banquet with some pompous jest.’;

Something done or said in order to amuse; a joke; a witticism; a jocose or sportive remark or phrase. See Synonyms under Jest, v. i.

Example: ‘I must be sad . . . smile at no man's jests.’; ‘The Right Honorable gentleman is indebted to his memory for his jests, and to his imagination for his facts.’;

The object of laughter or sport; a laughingstock.

Example: ‘Then let me be your jest; I deserve it.’; ‘And given in earnest what I begged in jest.’;

To take part in a merrymaking; - especially, to act in a mask or interlude.

To make merriment by words or actions; to joke; to make light of anything.

Example: ‘He jests at scars that never felt a wound.’;

a humorous anecdote or remark intended to provoke laughter;

Example: ‘he told a very funny joke’; ‘he knows a million gags’; ‘thanks for the laugh’; ‘he laughed unpleasantly at hisown jest’; ‘even a schoolboy's jape is supposed to have some ascertainable point’;

activity characterized by good humor

tell a joke; speak humorously;

Example: ‘He often jokes even when he appears serious’;

act in a funny or teasing way

a thing said or done for amusement; a joke

Example: ‘he laughed uproariously at his own jest’; ‘it was said in jest’;

an object of derision

Example: ‘lowly virtue is the jest of fools’;

speak in a joking way

Example: ‘you jest, surely?’;

For fear that; that not; in order that not; in case.

Example: ‘He won't go outside, lest he be eaten by those ravenous eagles.’;

That (without the negative particle); – after certain expressions denoting fear or apprehension.

To listen.

Lust; desire; pleasure.

Last; least.

For fear that; that . . . not; in order that . . . not.

Example: ‘Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty.’; ‘Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.’;

That (without the negative particle); - after certain expressions denoting fear or apprehension.

Example: ‘I fearedLest I might anger thee.’;

for fear that;

Example: ‘she tiptoed lest her mother should hear her’;

that (after verbs explicitly expressing fear etc.);

Example: ‘he worried lest he should be late’;